Quiet Professionals, Noisy Machinery

NPR Journalist Killed in Afghanistan

In a typically dishonest article, NPR, National Public Radio, a state-controlled broadcaster, reported on the death of one of its own this week. NPR’s David Gilkey was killed by a Taiban RPG, along with an NPR interpreter, Zabihullah Tamanna, whom NPR didn’t see fit to eulogize beyond the mere mention of his name — quite enough for a wog, if you’re NPR — and the Afghan wog, er, soldier driving Gilkey’s HMMWV, whose name NPR not only didn’t mention, but didn’t even record. Because wog.

David and [fellow NPRnik Tom Bowman] spent the past several years embedding with Afghan forces to see if they were up to the job of defeating the Taliban.

And two career journalists are going to decide this exactly how?

It’s a critical story that has largely been ignored. After 15 years of U.S. involvement in the Afghan war, the conflict has disappeared from the front pages in the U.S., and American interest has waned.

Indeed. Funny how that waning of media interest seems traceable to the same date as the coronation of NPR’s candidate for President in 2009. Well, strange coincidences abound these days.

The story does raise some questions:

How come these guys have such a hard time remembering their indigenous assistants? Have they put on a halo that’s two sizes too small? and,

When the Taliban kill an NPR journalist, is it “friendly fire”? and,

Why does a taxpayer-funded official propaganda radio network need a photographer? That’s what Gilkey was.

I still fondly recall being invited to participate on an NPR panel immediately after George Zimmerman was acquitted. Perhaps most fun was explaining to the law professor from California who was ranting about Florida’s “Stand-Your-Ground” law that California, his home state, was ALSO a “Stand-Your-Ground” state. Almost as much fun was listening to the rest of the panel screech about the fact that Zimmerman was given back his pistol by the trial court (DOJ would shortly seize it themselves, but that was later). They struggled to understand that Zimmerman’s acquittal meant he hadn’t legally done anything wrong , and therefore there were no grounds on which the court could retain private property.

Good times, good times. I’ll have to dig up that audio file one of these days. :-)

Incidentally, I experienced a much more intellectually rigorous, and at the same time fairer, hearing by German Television News station N24 when discussing both Zimmerman in particular and the American gun culture in general, than I ever did from NPR.

” They struggled to understand that Zimmerman’s acquittal meant he hadn’t legally done anything wrong , and therefore there were no grounds on which the court could retain private property.”

So much that is troubling in that one little sentence right there. Of course he did something wrong – he defended himself and rule of law doesn’t really make it into their thought processes, that’s not important.

He should not be given a gun back by the state, they need to keep it, because, gun.

Private property? That’s fine, unless the state thinks it’s a bad idea, then, not so much.

The last sentence is an excellent summation.
As is Hognose’s
“Funny how that waning of media interest seems traceable to the same date as the coronation of NPR’s candidate for President in 2009. ”
We live in “Interesting Times”

They may have worked for NPR, but I’ve read other pieces that say the photog was respected by troops he worked with. As for his Afghani partner, I guess you can read into the lack of attention to his death whatever you like; I’m not sure I’d assume automatically the HQ staff thinks of stringers as wogs.

I’m not a huge NPR fan either, but a lot of the tone and content of this post seems flip and below your usual standards, Hog. Take it for what it’s worth, my .02.

Mr. Matt, have you by any chance actually encountered American “Journalists” as they tour (As in sight seeing tourists.) a war zone? I have, and they are more racist than the KKK, different, but still racist. To them there are two types of untermensch, the noble, misunderstood saintlike folks who are attacking the west, and those race traitors who defend the west. Of course they don’t care about the driver, he was just another race traitor to the great and noble cause of the left. If he was a good untermensch he would have been an heroic Taliban fighter now wouldn’t he?

The Host is far less judgemental than I. My first thought on hearing of this was “All Right! The first round is on me!”. Harsh? You damn well betcha!

Ironically I remember some study of media bias actually had NPR ranking below CNN and MSN on the left scale surprisingly. Still definitely left but the other too were even more extreme. And they do have a website so I’m guessing the photos were intended for the site.

I would think the Hognose’s post seems flip because that’s the tone behind the dry, slanted reporting that those on NPR use towards the opposite side of the political spectrum. Yes, some people at HQ may care about the stringer, but I’d bet they won’t make a big fuss about it if it were FreddyGray et.al.

It’s a Jane Fonda-like situation with journalists embedding with the Taliban in a time of war when they are actively fighting our country in a war. I know that people will say a journalist’s job is to report the facts, but is that what they are doing? Does a journalist have a responsibility to his country (remember NATO countries are/were also there to varying degrees of resolve and ability if this dude wasn’t an American)?

It’s not right that they were killed, but I do remember a time about 7 years ago on NPR that a friend of the reporter or a staff member was kidnapped and a few soldiers were killed trying to rescue them. I actually called in because my brothers were serving in Helmand at the time and it infuriated me that they had the nerve to criticize how our military went about the operation. I don’t remember exactly but there was some kind of collateral damage or other things that they love to pin on the US as evidence we are all that is evil and bare all responsibility, and don’t bother to think that the enemy exaggerates or lies about deaths because they know they’ll get the equivalent of 3 years wages in goats and rice. Their man that was outside the military’s PA system and hadn’t had clearance to go where they were and were hanging it out on the edge, and therefore it caused the operators to never return home simply because they were chasing a story.

I do turn the channel on from time to time to see what the enemy thinks, as that’s most nearly all NPR is good for. Comment away.

I should clear up that the reporters and the guest of the show were very blase about the deaths of our operators but when I asked if they ever thought that the fact their guys took that risk, we were obligated to mount a rescue when there was HUMINT and SIGINT leading to their location, therefore baring responsibility in the deaths. And they replied with a curt, hollow and qualified answer of “we appreciate the sacrifices of all miltary members.” They cut me off before I could reply for the next caller.

This is the first place I’ve admitted to listening and then calling into NPR haha!

I had mixed feelings about this one. On one hand they gave this guy a much more extensive public eulogy than they ever have for any service member who served in the Afghan War. OTOH, at least he was out digging up facts about something rather than getting all the news from twitter. I swear that a lot of reporters never leave their desks, they just report what happens in social media feeds.

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